How to Play

In Outlast TCG, you are a commander leading a champion and their forces into the arena. Your goal is to reduce your opponent's life total from 20 to 0.

You win the game when any of these conditions are met:

• Elimination — Your opponent's life total reaches 0 or below
• Deck Out — Your opponent must draw a card but their deck is empty
• Card Effect — A card ability specifically states "you win the game"

The game can also end in a draw if both players would lose simultaneously.

Every card in Outlast falls into one of four types. Understanding how each type works is fundamental to mastering the game.

The game board is divided into several zones. Each zone has specific rules about which cards can be there and what they can do.

• Champion Zone — Where your Champion sits for the entire game. It's always visible to both players and your Champion's abilities are always active from here.
• Battlefield — Where your creatures, artifacts, and any other permanents are placed. Cards on the battlefield are "in play" and can use their abilities.
• Hand — Cards you've drawn but haven't played yet. Your hand is hidden from your opponent. You can hold up to 7 cards at end of turn.
• Deck (Draw Pile) — Your shuffled deck of cards face-down. You draw from the top of your deck each turn.
• Discard Pile (Graveyard) — Where destroyed creatures, used spells, and discarded cards go. This is public information — both players can look through it at any time.
• Exile — Cards removed from the game entirely. Exiled cards cannot be retrieved by normal means.

Before the first turn, both players follow these steps:

• Place your Champion — Put your Champion card face-up in the Champion Zone.
• Shuffle your deck — Shuffle your 40-card deck and place it face-down.
• Set life totals — Both players start at 20 life (30 in Arena/multiplayer).
• Draw opening hand — Each player draws 5 cards.
• Mulligan (optional) — If you don't like your hand, you may shuffle it back and draw one fewer card. You can mulligan once (drawing 4 cards).
• Determine first player — Flip a coin or roll a die. The first player skips their Draw Phase on turn 1.

Each turn consists of five phases, resolved in order. You must complete each phase before moving to the next.

Energy is the resource used to play cards and activate abilities. Unlike other TCGs, there are no resource cards — your energy grows automatically each turn.

• Turn 1 — 1 energy available
• Turn 2 — 2 energy available
• Turn 5 — 5 energy available
• Turn 10+ — 10 energy available (maximum)

Every card has an energy cost shown in its top corner. To play a card, you must have enough unspent energy. Spent energy is gone for the turn — unused energy does not carry over. This system ensures every game has a smooth power curve with no "mana screw."

Some card abilities can generate bonus energy or reduce costs, allowing for explosive combo turns.

Combat is where games are won and lost. Here's exactly how it works:

Step 1 — Declare Attackers: Choose any number of your ready (non-exhausted) creatures to attack. Attacking exhausts them. You can attack your opponent directly — you don't target specific creatures.

Step 2 — Declare Blockers: Your opponent chooses which of their ready creatures will block. Each blocker is assigned to one attacker. Multiple blockers can gang up on a single attacker.

Step 3 — Resolve Damage: All combat damage is dealt simultaneously:

• Blocked creatures deal their ATK to the blocker, and the blocker deals its ATK back. If damage meets or exceeds DEF, that creature is destroyed.
• Unblocked creatures deal their ATK directly to the opponent's life total.
• Multiple blockers — The attacker's controller chooses how to distribute damage among blockers.

Step 4 — Cleanup: Destroyed creatures go to the discard pile. Damage on surviving creatures is removed at end of turn.

Building the right deck is half the battle. Here are the rules and guidelines:

Your Champion determines your faction. You can only include cards from your Champion's faction plus neutral (factionless) cards. This creates distinct deck identities while still allowing creative builds.

Building tips:

• Include a mix of low, mid, and high-cost cards to have plays at every stage of the game
• Aim for 20-24 creatures, 10-14 spells, and 4-8 artifacts as a starting point
• Include removal spells to handle your opponent's threats
• Build around your Champion's ability — it's free every turn
• Test and adjust — swap cards that underperform for better options

Many cards have keyword abilities — shorthand for common effects. Here are the keywords in Outlast TCG:

• Rush — This creature can attack the turn it enters play (ignores the normal exhaustion rule).
• Shield — The first time this creature would be destroyed, prevent it and remove Shield instead.
• Stealth — This creature cannot be blocked until it has dealt damage to a player.
• Reach — This creature can block creatures with Stealth.
• Lifesteal — Damage dealt by this creature also heals your life total by the same amount.
• Overpower — When this creature destroys a blocker, excess damage carries through to the opponent's life total.
• Deathtouch — Any amount of damage this creature deals to another creature destroys it.
• Taunt — Enemy creatures must attack this creature if able.
• Summon — This ability triggers when the creature enters the battlefield.
• Last Stand — This ability triggers when the creature is destroyed.